Derick arrived back home, exhausted, with his red ink-stained manuscript in hand. Maria was waiting for him.
"I thought you'd be gone by now." Derick said wearily ask he kicked off his shoes.
"No, I stayed. I want to know what happened."
He walked over to the couch where she was sitting and dropped the manuscript on the coffee table in front of her. He then turned and shuffled into the bedroom to change clothes before Maria had a chance to look at it.
She turned the writing to face her, a look of shock creeping up on her face. "I don't believe it." She called. "He changed everything!" She thumbed through the manuscript.
Derick emerged from the bedroom, now clad in sweatpants and a tee-shirt. "I know." He said, his voice filled with impending doom.
Maria looked at him. "Are you going to make the changes?"
"What do you think?" Derick shuffled into the kitchen, Maria followed.
"This guy is a con! Don't change your whole piece just because some asshole didn't like it!"
"Oh, he didn't not like it. Actually, what he said was, 'It's quite exemplary.'" Derick mocked Devon's tone of voice.
"Yeah, right."
"No, really. He's the most unusual man I've ever met, or had a chance to work with. If he makes my writing better, why not let him?"
* * *
Derick stayed up for hours that night, even though exhaustion had set in. Maria had decided to stay the night with him, and was asleep in the bedroom as he worked on the computer in the living room. He changed every red mark, line and word. When he was finished, it looked like an entirely different story. It was 3:30 a.m.
Despite the time, Derick decided to call Devon. He retrieved the phone from its cradle and scrolled thought the list of callers until he got to 'Devon, Craig'. Derick pushed 'talk'.
"Hello, Derick." The cheerful voice said when Devon answered.
"Hi. I'm surprised you're still awake." Derick said.
"I'm always awake during the night. I like to conduct my business then. I'm very happy to hear that you're still awake."
"Yeah, well, not for long. Look, Devon, I've changed everything you wanted me to, and every suggestion you made…"
"Marvelous!" Devon interrupted.
"It's a totally different piece! You rewrote the whole damned thing! And, you don't give equal space to all the religions. This is not what I had in mind!"